Buried
by liz012014
Summary: An ancient temple collapses and Jack comes an important conclusion


Author: liz012014 Rating: PG (a single, solitary swear word) Spoilers: don't think so Disclaimer: none of its mine  
  
Buried  
  
Breathe. In. Out. Pain! Broken ribs definitely suck. Careful. In. Out. In. Out.  
  
Heavy eyelids forced open, squinting into the dark. Pitch black. Don't hyperventilate. Control. In. Out. In. Out.  
  
Where was the light? Where was he? How did he get here?  
  
Answers come slowly. Building collapsed. P4X 743. Ancient Goaul'd writing.  
  
Was his team here when it fell? He didn't know.  
  
"Daniel?" His voice cracked as he spoke for the first time in hours and hot pain flared through his chest.  
  
There was no answer. "Teal'c? Carter?" His voice rasped harshly in his dry throat. No answer.  
  
Talking made the pain worse. Slowly, he tested the rest of his body. Broken left arm. Cracked ribs. Massive headache. Concussion? He lifted his head a little and the blackness spun. Definitely a concussion.  
  
Focus. He needed to focus. He remembered going into the temple to retrieve Daniel. The structure hadn't looked solid. 'Guess I proved my own point.' Daniel argued with him for a few minutes then went to get the camcorder from Carter so he could work on the writings he'd found back at the base. O'Neill had started packing Daniel's equipment.  
  
Earthquake. Not too big but enough to bring down the fragile building. He didn't have enough time to get out.  
  
Now he was lying on his back in the dark, cut off from his teammates. A heavy slab of rock that used to be part of the ceiling pinned his legs to the floor, causing an uncomfortable heat in his right knee.  
  
O'Neill used his uninjured hand to pull a flashlight from his vest pocket. He flicked it on and breathed a sigh of relief when the white beam cut through the wreckage around him.  
  
Relief quickly faded to be replaced by fear. Chunks of stone pressed in on him from all sides. The wall he had been standing next to when the building came down was still intact and as far as O'Neill could tell, it was the only thing keeping him from being crushed. "Shit." His voice seemed muffled in the oppressive darkness of what was left of the room.  
  
"Colonel? Colonel, can you hear me?" A voice on the radio called, concern evident.  
  
He reached for the source of the sound. "Carter?" His voice was soft and hopeful.  
  
"Are you in the temple, sir?"  
  
His breath exploded from his lungs all at once. "Yeah, Carter."  
  
"Where are you exactly, sir?"  
  
O'Neill looked around again. "Near where Daniel left his stuff." The pain in his chest flared with each word.  
  
"We'll get you out, Colonel. Just hang on."  
  
He punched the radio's talk button again. "Good. Out is definitely good." Facial muscles contorted in reaction to pain.  
  
"How badly are you injured, sir?"  
  
His voice was barely audible when he spoke again. "Concussion. Broken arm and ribs. Maybe something wrong with my knee. I can't tell."  
  
Carter was silent for a long moment. "Daniel showed us where you are, sir. I just sent him back to the Stargate for help. Teal'c and I have already started digging." Another long pause. "This is going to take awhile."  
  
O'Neill nodded in the dark. 'Of course it is.' He depressed the button again. "Guess I'll hang around then."  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
He gasped for breath. "My ribs hurt, Carter. I'm going to be quiet now."  
  
"Yes, sir." Her voice held a wealth of sympathy.  
  
Pain. Lots of pain. He breathed. In. Out. Hand dropped back to his side. Pain-induced exhaustion took over and eyelids fluttered shut. Tired. He slept.  
  
Some time later he woke to the sound of heavy machinery. "Colonel? Can you hear me, sir?" Carter.  
  
He groped for the radio. "Carter?" A coughing fit took him as dust fell from the rubble above him.  
  
"Sir! We've got some help now, sir."  
  
He breathed deeply. In. Hold it. Out. "Good."  
  
"We're coming, colonel."  
  
"I know, Carter." The breath rattled in his chest. He was in trouble and he knew it. "Hurrying might be a good idea though."  
  
The sound of machinery went on for a while longer then stopped. Silence.  
  
"Carter?" He spoke quietly into the radio.  
  
"Sir, we've gone as far as we can with the heavy equipment. We're switching over to shovels. Let me know if you hear us."  
  
He coughed brokenly. "You got it," he wheezed and closed his eyes.  
  
O'Neill woke to a scraping sound from somewhere nearby. "Carter."  
  
"Sir?"  
  
"I hear scraping." Breathing was hard.  
  
"Colonel, can you hear me?" Carter's voice floated to him from above, instead of from the radio.  
  
He certainly wasn't going to yell back. At this point, he didn't think he could. He spoke into the radio. "I hear you, Carter."  
  
More dust fell on his face and a single beam of light broke into the chamber. He blinked up at it. "Colonel?"  
  
"I'm here, Carter." He could see her pale face and blonde hair floating just above the hole she'd created.  
  
She smiled. "Not long now, sir."  
  
He managed a tired smile in answer before she moved back to help widen the whole.  
  
Forty-five minutes later, O'Neill could see lots of cloudless blue sky through bleary eyes and his team as they rushed back and forth trying to uncover the rest of him. He smiled again and drifted back to sleep, the feeling of claustrophobia dwindling after his upper body was exposed to the afternoon sun.  
  
The next time he woke up, Teal'c was straddling his legs as he carefully hooked a strong wire around the slab of rock that was still trapping him. Carter was sitting in the narrow space beside him holding up an IV bag, his first indication that there were tubes leading to his arm.  
  
She smiled down at him. "Welcome back, sir."  
  
He blinked. The pain was better. Drugs were definitely a good thing. He was also thirsty. "Water?" His voice was rough.  
  
She nodded and reached for the canteen that was lying beside her. "Lieutenant?" She called to a young soldier who was standing close by.  
  
"Ma'am?" He knelt at the edge of the hole.  
  
Carter handed the IV bag to him. "Hold this." Then she tilted the Colonel's head and held the canteen to his lips.  
  
O'Neill sipped carefully and coughed at the sudden return of moisture to his mouth and throat. "Thanks," he whispered.  
  
"No problem." She smiled again. "We're almost done, sir."  
  
He nodded shortly. "Looks like half the SGC is here."  
  
Carter nodded. "Just about. We had to move a lot of debris to get to you, Colonel." The smile faded from her face. "This was close, sir. Very close."  
  
O'Neill touched Carter's arm with his good hand. "I'm ok, Sam."  
  
A low-watt version of her previous smile returned. "Yes, sir."  
  
"We're set!!" The shout came from somewhere out of sight.  
  
"Whenever you are ready, Major Cross," Teal'c answered from where he stood beside the large rock they were preparing to move.  
  
O'Neill glanced up at what he could see of his rescue operation. "Is that a crane?"  
  
"It is, O'Neill."  
  
He stared at Carter. "You brought a crane through the gate?"  
  
She grinned, looking pleased. "Yes, sir. We took it apart and reassembled it here."  
  
"I must have been unconscious a long time."  
  
Carter frowned. "You were."  
  
He sighed. "Lost time sucks."  
  
She chuckled.  
  
"Here we go, people! Be ready to stabilize the walls. We don't want it to collapse a second time."  
  
There was a chorus of "Yes, sir!" followed by the sound of the crane starting up again. Moments later, the large stone lifted and the blood rushed to O'Neill's legs, sending white hot pins and needles through his numb limbs.  
  
He bit his lip to keep from moaning. It hurt. A lot.  
  
Teal'c ducked under the slab as soon as it was high enough and began using beams that O'Neill had not previously seen to support the dirt walls on either side. After all, it wouldn't do to have another collapse. O'Neill had a sudden image of the dirt around him crumbling and covering him, blocking out the light again. Complete and total blackness, just like before. So dark. His breath caught in his throat and he clenched his fists, sending shooting pain up his broken arm.  
  
"Sir? Are you ok, Colonel?" Carter's voice broke through the rather vivid hallucination.  
  
He focused on her face and nodded. She smiled at him and lay a comforting hand on his arm. "We're ready to get you out of here now, sir."  
  
O'Neill forced a small smile at his 2IC before turning to see Teal'c and several Airmen wrestling the large stone slab onto the rubble beside the hole O'Neill was currently lying in.  
  
Teal'c jumped back into the hole and turned to take a stretcher from Daniel. A doctor carefully climbed down beside the Colonel and he and Teal'c carefully transferred the injured soldier onto the board they would soon use to carry O'Neill back through the Stargate.  
  
Teal'c and the doctor carefully lifted the Colonel. As they got the stretcher high enough to clear the walls of the hole, the doctor transferred his end of the stretcher to Daniel. Daniel and Teal'c moved the stretcher away from the edge and set it down long enough for Teal'c and Carter to climb up beside their teammates. The doctor quickly followed.  
  
Daniel stood at the head of the stretcher, looking down at his friend. "Ready to go home, Jack?"  
  
O'Neill nodded emphatically, regretting the motion immediately as the world flipped over on its side. He clamped down on the nausea. "Can't wait."  
  
Ahead of them, the gate spun and whooshed open. Teal'c picked up one end of O'Neill's stretcher and Daniel picked up the other. They started forward at a slow but steady pace, Carter walking along beside them with the still-present IV bag.  
  
As they neared the gate, O'Neill craned his neck to look back at what was left of the temple. It was virtually unrecognizable. He turned back to his teammates. 'I was lucky.' He reflected on how close he had just come to never going home again. 'Very lucky.' O'Neill glanced up at the faces of his teammates, his friends, and he knew without a doubt that despite everything they'd just gone through to get him back that they would do it again if they had to. He smiled.  
  
"What?" Carter wore a small, confused smile of her own.  
  
His smile grew wider. "Nothing. I just realized how lucky I am."  
  
Carter nodded her understanding and together, SG-1 walked through the gate. 


End file.
